April launch for tourist campaign

The biggest tourist marketing campaign Byron Bay has seen will be launched on TV in April.

It was going to be called ‘My Byron Day’, but after discussions with Tourism NSW, the town’s peak business body, Byron United, has rebranded the $360,000 campaign ‘Byron Naturally’.

Byron United president Sevegne Newton said the name was changed because Tourism NSW intended to take the campaign further afield, as well as community and business feedback.

“Being the largest tourism campaign ever put together for Byron, we felt it was essential that the campaign accurately reflected the very best that Byron had to offer,” said Ms Newton.

“We recognised, along with our creative team, Utopia, that we needed to capture the essence that is Byron and we think ‘Byron Naturally’ does this.

“There is no doubt in our mind that people come to Byron for its natural beauty, and quite naturally, where else would you go?”

Ms Newton said three representatives from Tourism NSW along with Byron United and Utopia Creative members worked through the creative commitments to produce ‘effective tie-ins’ with a further half a million dollars worth of Tourism NSW campaigns including ‘Short Breaks’ which would be launched at the end of the month.

She said the opportunities Tourism NSW had brought to the table were exciting and the first step in redressing the downturn in business since the south-east Queensland floods.

“We will be presenting these great new opportunities to the businesses who have already signed up to the campaign and we are hoping that more businesses will be quick to take advantage of these additional elements,” she said.

“With domestic tourist numbers declining, this is the most positive outcome for %all those small businesses and their employees who rely on the tourism industry in Byron.

“We genuinely hope that smaller villages like Bangalow, Mullumbimby and Brunswick Heads will participate and reap the benefits.”

Ms Newton said that after a disastrous start to the year for business, Byron United had worked extremely hard for six months to bring the campaign to fruition.

She said the television commercial would be locally produced by Utopia Creative, with the campaign including a video-based website and value add-on offers for visitors.

The campaign is scheduled to be launched at the start of April, initially targeting the south-east Queensland market.